Resolution Recap

Hello Summer! 

It's officially the end of the craziness that is work, at least for 2 months. While part of what I love about my job is the fact that once the seasons start there isn't much downtime, it's still nice to get a few months to recharge before the crazy hits the fan again in August. So what exactly does the summer have planned for us? I'm going to enjoy being able to hang with the kiddo more often, but we've decided to keep with her regularly scheduled weekend trips to Bebe and Daddad's house. This way she still gets to see her peeps in Louisiana and gives her some sort of routine. This is how the weekends in the month of June are going to play out for Mommy since the kiddo will be spending hers in Louisiana:

Weekend 1 will be spent reading, straightening the apartment up, watching some NCAA baseball regional action as well as my Texas Rangers, catching up on the blog, and spending some time in the sun at the pool. It's too gorgeous to NOT go outside, so I'm actually typing this blog post from my makeshift "porch" in front of the apartment.

Weekend 2 will be spent helping a good friend get rid of all of the crap that her ex felt the need to leave in her apartment, a possible date for me, the Belmont Stakes, some grocery shopping (since there will be money in the bank account again) and more reading.

Weekend 3 will be spent at Bebe and Daddad's celebrating Father's Day.

Weekend 4 will be spent at my best friend's wedding shower! I'm so excited. I have the PERFECT gift for her and really just hope it comes in before the shower. If not, I guess I'll have to do a massive box with the picture of the gift. :)

Weekend 5 will be spent either roadtripping to a Rangers game, or spending the weekend with the kiddo. The roadtrip is dependent upon whether there are free tickets involved and if we have money for gas by that point in the month.

Adventures in Cooking

I have been on a massive baking kick lately. I've become addicted to this: 

I seem to baking it on a weekly basis. I add in chocolate chips and it is to DIE for! Try this; you won't regret it. 

I also found this recipe for Skinny Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies. I HAD to try these when I saw that I had all but one ingredient to make them. I almost regret doing so because I'm obsessed. I couldn't found my brownie pan, so I made muffins out of them and they are AMAZING! I had to stop myself from eating the entire batch in one sitting. 

#MOTY Playlist

This is the playlist that helped bring you this blog post, and a few others you will be seeing over the weekend. 

Bad Romance - Artists v. Poets (Punk Goes Pop)

Over Again - One Direction

Let Me Go - 3 Doors Down

Jukebox Hero - Foreigner

No Surprise - Daughtry

Southern Comfort Zone - Brad Paisley

Ms. Robinson - Simon and Garfunkel

Angel - Aerosmith

Honeybee - Blake Shelton

Begin Again - Dropkick Murphys

Cruise - Florida Georgia Line

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Miranda Lambert

Right Here Waiting - Richard Marx

I Don't Need a Man - Pussycat Dolls

Crawling - Linkin Park

December 1963 - Frankie Valli

Takin' Off This Pain - Ashton Shepard

Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney

Give Me Everything - Pitbull

RESOLUTION RECAP 

(1) Cook one meal a month. Big fat fail! I've been too busy to even THINK of things to pull out of the fridge to heat up, much less a meal to cook. 

(2) Read one book a month. Surprisingly, I do really well with this one. Taking Chances; The Dark Heroine; Reflected in You; and Barred to You. 

(3) Donate to charity each month. The TRF (Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation) is my standard charity of choice for the month of May since it's the start of the Triple Crown races. 

(4) Place $500 in savings. Thanks to my tax refund this one is accomplished, now the goal is to keep the majority of it in there. 

(5) Visit William. I seriously need to call him back. I'm a bad friend sometimes. :( 

(6) Exercise/Drop Weight. Consistent. I need to shake things up a bit, and I think June is a GREAT month to do that. 

Cute Kid Moment Montage

Cute Kid Moment #1

The other day, the kiddo and the g-rents bought her some kangaroos for her Little People zoo. The kiddo sometimes has a difficult time understanding that she has to hand the cashier the toy so we can pay for it and then she gets it back. Bebe (g-ma) told her that once you pay for something it's yours and you can keep it forever and ever. The kiddo has taken this to heart and now likes to pick up her toys and conversations go like this:

Kiddo, "Paid?"

Mommy, "Yes, puddin, we paid for it."

Kiddo, "Yours"

Mommy, "Yes, puddin, it's all yours"

Kiddo, "Ev n ev" 

Mommy, "Yes, it's yours forever and ever." 

Cute Kid Moment #2

The kiddo has started to try and figure out how to dress herself. This usually includes her hand constantly being in her diaper. We like to keep the blinds open during the day because it allows the kiddo to look out the window and see people and their pets. It's an easy way to keep her easily entertained. This morning, she took her diaper off in stripper fashion (or like a basketball player with tear-away track pants) and then tossed it on the floor and ran to jump up on the couch. I'm such a good mom that I missed this perfect video opportunity, but I did enjoy laughing the entire time it was going on. 

Cute Kid Moment #3

Before leaving for lunch today, the kiddo felt the need to put a pair of her bloomers from when she was a baby on her head like a hat. To her credit, it did match her outfit but we had a slight fuss when it fell off her head and I put them in my pocket before she could find them. No sweat though, she got excited about the idea of going out to lunch. We pull into one of my favorite local pizza places and as I go to get her out she says, "lunch! shrimp! fries!" Oops. She didn't tell me she had a preference for lunch! Oh well, kiddo was a trooper and ate her pizza and plate from the salad bar like it was going out of style. 

Mini-Masters Champ! (Sort of)

This Sunday I competed in the Mini-Masters mini-golf tournament to raise money for the local Children's Museum. It was lots of fun, and I entered expecting nothing more than to have made a donation to the Museum and gotten a goody bag and t-shirt out of the deal. We pulled up to the mini-golf course and immediately went for our swag after registering. Why else would one enter a mini-golf tournament if not for the free swag!

The adults were put on the more difficult course of the two (they haven't seen my lack of skills) and we were off! I made a goal to score a 61. That doesn't sound like a good score to most people, but for me it's a pretty killer score. I surprised myself and finished the day with a 60. It was my personal best as an adult. (I swear I was better at mini-golf when I was a kid!) To top it off, I placed 4th in my division!

See! I placed! Ignore that there weren't that many adult females participating. I still beat a few of them. 

I didn't take a picture of it, but if I had been allowed to compete in the 5 and under age group, I would have killed the field!

Funny or Not?

I found some articles about a guy who posted pictures of his toddler on the internet with the different reasons that his kid was crying. I found it hilarious. As the mom of a toddler who has some epic meltdowns, some of them can be down right hilarious. Some people are claiming that it is mean of a father to post pictures of his son when he is crying and the myriad of reasons ("I wouldn't let him drown in the pond", "I closed the refrigerator", etc). For those who don't have children, it may seem mean. For those of us with children, sometimes you just have to laugh.

If I had posted a page like that, it would be of my kiddo yelling at me. Just in the past hour, she's yelled at me at least 5 times. The thought bubbles would reach as so "Mommy wouldn't let me climb in a tub full of water!", "Mommy wouldn't let me climb out of my crib!", "Mommy wouldn't give me more ketchup!", "Mommy asked if she could go potty!" and "Mommy told me I could only take ONE of her Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs!" Some of the reasons that my toddler yells at me are pretty damn funny. I think it's part of what makes her awesome. :)

Cute Kid Moment

The kiddo feels that everyone is her friend. It's one of the many ways that she's like me. She never meets a stranger. Our neighbors across the way, Paige and Jimmy, are part of her little entourage.Friday, Paige let the kiddo pet one of her cats. In the kiddo's mind, Paige had always been cool but now has moved up on her little list of favorite people. Jimmy has had a harder time breaking into the kiddo's top peeps list. He found a feather and used it to tickle her cheek which instantly earned him a spot because she thought that was almost as cool as having a cat. The kiddo has an open invite to come visit them before they move. (It'll be sad for all of us when they move because we really like them.)

 On Saturday, she wanted to go walk. She's just gotten the hang of this walking business and now that's all she wants to do is go walk. In the back of our apartment complex, people park their boats. The kiddo LOVES the boats. Saturday morning she wanted to go walk to see the boats. (I know it won't last, but I'd love her to stay this easily entertained forever.) When we got back home, she looked across the grass to Paige and Jimmy's apartment and this conversation happened:

Kiddo - "Paige"
Me - "Yea, that's where Ms. Paige lives."
Kiddo - "Cat"
Me - "Yea, Ms. Paige has a cat."
Kiddo - "Meow"
Me - "You are so smart! Ms. Paige's cat says 'meow'."
Kiddo - "Jim-Jim"
Me - "Yea, Mr. Jimmy lives there too."
Kiddo - laughing as she walks to our door and sits on the doormat "Ticky-ticky-ticky" while pointing to her cheeks

The kiddo has found friends and I'm not looking forward to the day they move and I have to tell her they don't live there any more.

Resolution Recap - March

I have completely neglected this blog during the month of March due to work and the kiddo, but I will get this resolution recap in before I hit the ground running with work today. I have some posts planned for the rest of the week, but this will suffice for now.

RESOLUTION RECAP 

(1) Cook one meal a month. This one got blown out the water with that whole "no day off from work" bit. I did cook one meal, that I did not blog about. I'll share that story later because it was a complete wreck, but with my mom's help was salvageable. 

(2) Read one book a month. Surprisingly, I did a great job with this one: The Fifth Assassin; Contingency; Stuck in the Middle; Me, Just Different; Reinventing Claire; and Friends with Partial Benefits

(3) Donate to charity each month. This month I donated to Super Sibs! which is an amazing organization to recognize the siblings of children battling cancer who oftentimes get overlooked unintentionally. 

(4) Place $500 in savings. Thanks to my tax refund, I've already accomplished this goal. Let's see if I can keep that in place until the end of the year. 

(5) Visit William. TBA

(6) Exercise/Drop Weight. I was shocked that I actually dropped 1/2 a pound this month. I was sure that all the ballpark meals and fast food would have up a pound or two. 

Where Have I Been?

Wow! Has it really been over 2 weeks since I checked in here? Times flies when you don’t have a day away from your job for 4 weeks. I have some much needed time away from work coming up this weekend, and I’m choosing to spend it as a fan at our conference basketball tournament to support the women’s basketball team. (That is if they win their game on Thursday, since I can’t go until after work on Thursday. If not, then I get to spend the night and the day in beautiful Katy, TX, and then come home and not get out of my yoga pants for the weekend. FUN STUFF!)

Speaking of “fun stuff”, my friends and I have taken a liking to this local family fun center and have kind of made it our hangout. We go right after work so we can have the place to ourselves for a few hours before families start showing up. Is it sad that we’re almost 30 and don’t want to share the mini-golf course or arcade with children? Personally, I just don’t want to see an 8 year-old beat my high scores on skee ball. (Yea, you read that correctly, I have gotten the high score AND THEN BEAT my own high score. Major accomplishment.)

#MOTY LATEST OBSESSIONS

I feel the need to share a few of my latest obsessions on here.Here are the things that I have become obsessed with in the month of February: 

• One Direction’s latest album. Listen here. Seriously, this album can make a bad day better because it’s just fun to rock out to. (Bring on the jokes; I can take them!)
• This girl. Her workouts are awesomely fun! I have been following her workout calendar since the end of January. I don't always have time to hit all of the workouts, but I try to get in as many as I can. I also tend to throw in a mix of some videos from FitSugar or other workout videos that I have as well. 
• Target's dollar bins. This Easter Bunny is about to tear that up. TONS of cute stuff in there. They have Sesame Street bath books that will be making an appearance in the kiddo's Easter basket. I'm thinking about getting her some of the maracas as well. 

RESOLUTION RECAP 

I guess I should do one of these since we’re in March now, right?

(1) Cook one meal a month. My planned meals for the month of February became non-existent towards the end of the month due to my never being home long enough to actually cook anything. Considering the lack of time at home, I think the fact that I cooked 3 meals this month PLUS did some baking counts for brownie points. (And am I just making up that I said one meal a month? Didn't I say one meal a week? I’m so confused right now and the coffee isn't helping to make things clearer.) 

(2) Read one book a month.  Books for February: The Shameful Diary of a Hopeless Romantic, Wild Pitches, Lucky Charm and Always the Last to Know.

(3) Donate to charity each month. This month I donated to Big Brothers/Big Sisters. My friend Donna was raising money in Bowl for Kids’ Sake, so it seemed perfect to make that my charity of choice for the month of February.  

(4) Place $500 in savings. I was able to put $125 into savings this month. I may have to turn around and pay this in taxes, but at least I was able to budget enough to be able to put some money in there to help with that.

(5) Visit William. TBA – with some unexpected expenses this year, I’m hoping I can still pull this one off.

(6) Exercise/Drop Weight. I dropped 2 pounds this month. Considering my crazy schedule and how I've been eating like crap, I consider that an accomplishment. 

Since I've been a slacker on this blog lately, this graphic describes exactly how I feel right now....plus it made me laugh.